Madrid
Here are some photos from my trip to Madrid Friday, May 21 - Monday, May 24, 2004.
Day 1 - Saturday May 22, 2004
The flight left Thursday night and arrived on Friday morning with 20 minutes of sleep. So I slept most of the day Friday and went out for dinner and had the most delicious roast pork. After that we went to Casino Grand Madrid and I won 20 Euros playing Blackjack. Everyone was placing bets in my circle with mine. Guess that's normal over there. The picture taking began on Saturday so I'll use that as day 1. One thing that you will be doing in Madrid is a lot of walking. I haven't walked this much since Woodstock 99. After getting some tapas at the local taperia we worked and then I went to downtown Madrid called Sol. I did some shopping there then walked down to Plaza Mayor which was a big square which had more shops and lots of little bars. I had some vino and some tapas. Tapas by the way are these delicious little appetizers they give you gratis with a drink or you can order them from a tapas menu. Examples are potato and egg omelet called Spanish tortilla, croquettes, grilled shrimp, salmon with mustard sauce, and fried potatoes. So good. After that I went down to see some museums but they were closed because of the royal wedding that was taking place that day. I walked down Paseo del Prado which is known as museum mile in Madrid because there are a bunch of museums in one small area. The clock struck 9pm and it was still light out. Their choice of time zone is great in Madrid. Maybe that is why people don't start going out until around midnight and stay out all night. After this I found a sidreria which is a shop that sells hard cider. They have an interesting tradition in cider shops where they take the bottle of cider and hold it up behind their head and hold the glass all the way down and pour it all the way down into the glass splashing it everywhere. There were woodchips and buckets everywhere to catch the mess. Crazy. Snapped a shot of the bartender doing it. After this I met up with Mauricio for a delicious Spanish dinner and then some desserts. Spain has some of the best food I have ever had in my life.